GM FurtiveZoog's PFS First Steps, Part I: In Service to Lore (Gamma) (Inactive)

Game Master FurtiveZoog

"You are correct Paracountess, I am not tasty, except to cats."Narrows his eyes at the Paracountess."You don't have a bunch of cats in the next room do you? Is that what is making all that noise?

Zander listens to the swaggering showmanship of the Paracountesses practiced speech. "Do you have what we have come for or not?" he asks without his usual diplomatic wordplay?

"Order is but an illusion, Paracountess. A sweet, little fib we often tell ourselves to make us feel in control, with no more substance to it than a bedtime story. For example, that racket sounds anything but controlled, but I'm sure you will disagree."

Adelaide listens to the saccharine words of the woman, but is more focused on what could be producing the sounds they have been overhearing. Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14

She gazes at the woman with scrutiny. "Such order seems tenuous at best, perched precariously as it is on the backs of sentient creatures." Tipping her head to the side as if in deep contemplation, she asks thoughtfully, "What happens when they aren't bowing anymore, Paracountess?"

"Fortunately, then, my dear, there are no cats in the next room," the paracountess chuckles to Kawrock, though she answers Vyk Tyr with a colder, matter-of-factness, "And, my dear, do not discount the power of 'just' an illusion - you can kill, even, with an illusion."

Turning to Zander, "The clerics are always the most boring and to the point, it seems," Zarta says with an exaggerated sigh and frown, "But I would think a cleric of Shelyn would understand the importance of beauty over substance..."

"Speaking of 'points'," the paracountess reaches into her desk and withdraws an exquisite silver 'letter opener', shaped like a lethal dagger. "A servant is greatly misbehaving. You’re going to have to deal with it in order to get the trinket. You might need this to get it to submit," she offers with a sly grin.

You can decide who accepts the dagger. It's treated as a masterwork silver dagger.

"So much for your vaunted 'order'," Tuich mutters quietly before raising her voice. "Excuse me m'am, but I'm not sure I understand. What sort of 'servant' are we talking about exactly, and why is it you can't control it yourself? No disrespect intended of course," she adds with a sweet smile.

Polite bump for my last post

"Shelyn teaches us to look for inner beauty, not the masks devil's place upon themselves to play with normal men." Hefting his glaive, Zander makes for the other room, leaving the silver dagger in the paracountesses hand.

Thanks, Lady Adelaide, for the 'bump': I often miss things since even a small post of mine takes half-an-hour to do as I am continually called away. I am the easiest ninja target on the boards, I think.

Lady Adelaide can't tell what kind of creature it is, although perhaps it is flying and throwing around a heavy object. Occasionally, you might hear a small, grating voice agitatedly speaking - probably cursing in - some blasphemous language.

"Oh, I could, of course," the paracountess smiles back at Tuich, "but I have just had my nails done" - she pauses to admire the blood-red varnish - "And if I know Ambrus - and I do know Ambrus - then he will expect you to follow my instructions as if they were his own. Part of the order of things, you know?" She smiles back just as sweetly, batting an eye at Lady Adelaide. "It is a simple imp - among the least of the devils."

The paracountess leaves the dagger at the edge of the table.

"An imp? I don't suppose it's covered in chocolate, is it? Oh well, no matter. But, really, one must wonder what stitched together souls of the damned taste like covered in chocolate."

Vyk makes a point of stepping uncomfortably close to the Paracountess, and removing the dagger from her hand, grinning all the while.

Tuich giggles at Vyk's inquiry while quoting quietly to herself, "Vanity working on a weak head produces every sort of mischief."

Draws his nodachi and steps up to the door with Zander.

"I hope imps are easier to hit then rats."

Tuich looks at the paracountess, then Kawrock, then the paracountess again. "M'am, just what do you mean by 'deal with it?' I shouldn't want us to mortally wound your 'servant' if you only mean us to force it into submission."

Zarta considers the question of what a chocolate imp may taste like and, handing the dagger to Vyk Tyr (she doesn't flinch at his approach), she suggests, "Perhaps not that different from chocolate-covered tiefling. You should come to one of my parties."

Responding to Tuich: "I should hope you would try not to kill it; even we Chelaxians are not in the habit of killing servants - well, not the useful ones, anyway," Zarta laughs. "But, it certainly takes more skill and restraint to not kill something outright, qualities Pathfinders are not always known for."

"Lady, you couldn't afford me."

Vyk turned to his companions. "Alright, let's go deal with the Imp. Although not literally. Deals with devils are a profoundly stupid idea."

I went ahead and moved you in.

Zarta’s bedroom is decorated in the colors of Cheliax—ebon black and crimson red. Silk, rare woods, and carefully carved marble compose every bit of furniture in the room. Goose down now litters the room, covering almost every surface and the silken shreds of the cushions that contained it lie about like flayed skin. A post on the massive screened bed is snapped in half, collapsed on the bed and drawing the screened curtains into a ripped slope of formerly fine cloth. Vials of perfume and crystal jars of other cosmetics sit smashed on the marble floor around the dresser. A prominent fixture in the room, a large “X” made of stout wood sits along the south wall, complete with leather shackles and chains. A table sits to its left strewn with various items intended for pleasure, but outwardly resembling implements of pain.

A small, monstrous creature with long horns, fiendish wings, red skin, and a furiously-lashing, scorpion-like tail has what must be the 'trinket' in question - a dented metal box that the creature flies and throws which as much strength as it can muster against the stone wall. It doesn't seem to care about (or perhaps even notice) your arrival.

North is 'up'. The creature (the imp) and the box are in I3.

Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 191d10 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

"Foul Demon!" mutters Zander as he steps forward with a fearsome slash at the devilspawn.

Move to H5, attack!

Following Zander's lead he moves into the room and looks around.

Moves to F4. I am guessing this is a surprise round?

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

"There are more shiny weapons on that table over there." Points at the table in the southwest corner.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17

"Are we sure attacking the creature is the best way to calm it down, Zander?" Adelaide looks at him skeptically, wincing if his unprovoked attack lands. "He doesn't want to be here anymore than we would, I imagine..."

Adelaide will look around at Vyk and Tuich, if it's not too late, to see what they may have in mind.

Zander stands aghast for a moment that a paladin of the Silver Crusade doesn't think banishing a evil outsider slaved by a corrupt and vile country is a good thing before he resumes fighting the hell spawn.

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 3

"Yep, there's definitely a room here."

The tiny imp catches Tuich's eye first upon entering the room. "That thing would hardly be an appetizer for you, Vyk." She glances around the room and spots the Saint Andrew's Cross as she whips off her scarf again. "Ooh, kinky!"

"HEY!" she barks at the imp. "GIVE US THAT BOX!"

Intimidate: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Adelaide smiles slightly at Zander's disbelief. "Unless someone has shown himself to be irretrievably evil, my goddess demands that I treat him with the kindness I would show to anyone who had lost his way. It is taboo to deal in casual cruelty to others."

"You will find that the paladins of the Silver Crusade exist to help those in need. If you want a paladin who will merely attack things on sight based on their appearance, I suggest you find a paladin from the Mendevian Crusade."

Although Lady Adelaide would agree that slavery is bad, killing the imp is probably not the way to go here, since a planar bound creature actually dies when you kill it. Not to mention that we were asked NOT to kill the imp by Zarta.

"I would listen to the lady, little imp. I have no qualms about killing you. Only the fact that I know the Paracountess would just summon another of you as soon as we left is why I don't bother now."

I'm cool with killing the imp, if necessary, but would rather avoid it. Those things aren't really pushovers, even with Silver. Must I remind everyone of the incident with the Dire Rat?

Zander slashes the creature doing horrendous damage with his glaive.

Stealth: 1d20 + 3 + 8 + 20 - 5 ⇒ (4) + 3 + 8 + 20 - 5 = 30
+20 to pinpoint it...

But, then the creature suddenly disappears and flutters off to a place unknown...

Chanting a quick spell, Zander's eyes flare with magic as they begin to focus on the magical auras in the room. "You can run little demon, but you cannot hide."

Did he drop the box?
Anyone else think it's kinda lame that you can defeat any level of stealth and invisibility with a detect magic?

Adelaide moves to one corner of the disheveled room (I8) and furrows her brow in concentration. Her eyes flash for a moment as she observes the room (looking toward the northwest), attempting to discern the location of the imp-thing with her ability to detect evil.

"Come out, come out! Hide and seek is not really a game you want to play with all the pointy things in this room, is it?" she murmurs jovially.

Pulls out the powder bag he got from the warehouse and waits for the imp to reappear.

Ready action to throw the powder bag at the imp when he reappears. Just going to do attack roll now to save time.

powder bag: 1d20 + 1 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 1 + 3 = 18

Vyk moved to the door. To assure nothing got by him.

If the door was open, Vyk will close it.

Tuich, herself blocking the other half of the doorway, nods in approval as Vyk takes up Kawrock's former spot. "I was just going to suggest that. The lack of windows is fortunate. There's no end to the mischief that invisible troublemaker could cause if we let it out of the room."

Her silks and hair are buffeted by a sudden burst of wind so strong she has to adjust her balance... a wind totally unfelt by Vyk or anyone else.

Tuich groans in annoyance. "Ashava save me... the imp, Tooley! The imp, not you. Sheesh!"

She tries to focus on scanning the room, looking for any clues to the imp's location.

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 8

Imp? What imp?

No, it didn't drop the box. I was considering having it do so because of the damage and the intimidate, but that would be inventing a rule.

Which way are you scanning, Zander? I'll assume NE.

I'll use the cone shapes under Magic - Aiming a Spell, just as a reminder.

When I looked into it before, most people seemed to think that: 1) Detect Magic (etc.) can be used to find invisible targets and 2) the 'clock' would reset if an person or thing moves out of the cone (or even above your head...), so a continually moving target would be tough to pinpoint. Since imps have both Detect Magic and Detect Good as constant abilities, presumably they are familiar with the rules, as it were. (While the paladin's SLA of Detect Evil doesn't have an obvious giveaway like spellcasting, one presumes it might make an educated guess based on the paladin's aura, once it starts to look.)

Do Kawrock, Tuich, Eurydes, or Vyk Tyr have any magic on or about them, btw?

Zander doesn't detect any magic (unless the above), but Lady Adelaide detects evil in the direction she is looking.

I'll DMPC Eurydes, who suggests:
"Let's spread out some, in case it appears, or we need to search by hand.

Tuich has nothing that would create an aura, and no spells up.

Erm... unless spirits and ghosties naturally detect as magical, which I don't believe they do.

Adelaide squints and slowly begins to move in the direction of the evil aura, concentrating on maintaining her focus. (I assume this puts her at H7 by next turn? Maybe G6?)

"You're right, Eurydes. We should spread out." She says the last two words with a jerk of her head toward the aura, trying to subtly key the others in to the fact that she detects something there.

Ninja edit: Adelaide will attempt to follow the aura as it moves, at least visually, if not able to physically.

Moves slowly north searching for any movement or sound, with his powder bag still at the ready.

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

That will put him at D7 still ready action to throw the powder bag.

Lady Adelaide - Unfortunately, it only would indicate that it is somewhere in the cone, not really a direction. :-\

I waited too long on rolling initiative for various reasons, but I just rolled and it is the same as I was doing: Everyone gets to go and then the Imp goes.

Vyk Tyr and Tuich can still go this round.

Gotcha. If she keeps focusing, then it will narrow down, right?

If we lose focus and have to start over whenever the Imp moves then scanning will be useless. I've always played that since people can look around and PC's have no definitive facing, you can keep looking at the thing you want to learn about, regardless of where it goes. If GMFZ doesn't roll that way, that's fine, but we're all going to have to just wait for it to fast heal back up and decide who it wants to attack.

Well, you could look at it no matter where it goes, but you don't know where it is or where it is going yet. If you had it pinpointed on the 3rd round, then you could keep following it.

As for starting over, a quick check of the boards seems to indicate that the 'start over' rule is widely accepted (e.g. here). In the spell description, it states "The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area or subject.", and if the area changes (not having a visible subject to study) it does seem that you would be back to step 1. (Many don't like the idea that Detect Magic can detect invisible creatures in the first place, but the glossary does have a line that says "Invisibility does not thwart divination spells.")

As for facing, while it is true that characters are not generally considered to have facing, spells most certainly do have directions and areas, which is why I put a link up to the section on Magic ("Aiming a Spell") that describes, among other shapes, cones. The spell descriptions also say, for example, "Each round, you can turn to detect evil in a new area." and "Each round, you can turn to detect magic in a new area."

(I did also mention that it could be above your head - out of the cone upwards, unless you are looking upwards - since it is a tiny creature and so may be in the same square as you, and, indeed, must be to be able to attack you.)

I would disagree that scanning is pointless: One person scanning, properly positioned, can narrow the area down approximately in half in only one round; two people scanning could narrow the area down approximately to one-quarter of the room, changing the ~36 squares in the room to 9, while also having each check above the other's head. (Fortunately, it is an enclosed and relatively small space.) The rest could try to get it.

The glossary has two ways to actively try to find or attack invisible critters:

A creature can grope about to find an invisible creature. A character can make a touch attack with his hands or a weapon into two adjacent 5-foot squares using a standard action. If an invisible target is in the designated area, there is a 50% miss chance on the touch attack. If successful, the groping character deals no damage but has successfully pinpointed the invisible creature's current location. If the invisible creature moves, its location, obviously, is once again unknown.

...

If a character tries to attack an invisible creature whose location he has pinpointed, he attacks normally, but the invisible creature still benefits from full concealment (and thus a 50% miss chance). ...

I also see at least two aspects of the room description that could be helpful in finding the imp, just from what I would see as a player (they aren't mentioned further in the GM description).

I hadn't run into this problem in the other two runs, actually, because I had the imp throw the chest (as it had been doing) against a wall in a subsequent turn, thus separating the imp from what the players' wanted, but this time it played out quicker, knocking him to less than half his hp in the first round. (Granted, killing something before it kills you is usually the right tactic.) Ironically, it would have surrendered if taken down 1 more hp.

Vyk handed the Masterwork silver dagger to Tuich. And then drew his own silver light mace from the strap along his thigh.

"Here. Got my own."

Vyk then spoke up the Imp.

"Give us the box, imp! And we can discuss leaving you alone to annoy the paracountess. Believe me, her discomfort would cause me no small amount of joy."

Bluff: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12

GMFZ: You can run it however you want, I'm fine with it. I just disagree with many of the assumptions made in the discussion. This is not the best place for what could turn into a heated debate.

Tuich pulls the recently acquired jar of ink out of her pocket. Unscrewing and discarding the lid, she holds the jar at the ready in one hand, her scarf in the other.

GMFZ, if you don't judge that as taking more than a Move Action, she'll also cast Guidance on herself this round.

Well, Zander (Mez), I really don't want a heated discussion, although I do really want and try to get the right answer, if at all possible, which why I documented as I went. :-\

That sounds fine, Tuich, although cast the Guidance first since Guidance has a somatic component and so requires a free hand to cast.

It seems to make sense that leaving the area of effect of the detect spell would end the effects of the spell. That's how it works for most other AoE spells, right? Consequently when it reenters the AoE, it's treated as doing so for the first time.

That sounds fine, Tuich, although cast the Guidance first since Guidance has a somatic component and so requires a free hand to cast.

EDIT: Yikes, I somehow missed that Vyk handed Tuich the silver "dagger." So, the above action is modified to her slinging the scarf over her shoulder where it's readily available, with the letter opener in one hand and the bottle of ink in the other. Sorry about that.

Sure, I'll add a Detect Magic to the mix.

Vyk concentrated, and tried to detect the aura of the Imp's spell.

Continues to search and walk around the bed.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

Lady Adelaide, scanning NW, detects evil.

Zander, scanning E (Just to pick a direction), does not detect magic.
We'll assume that the walls are one foot thick stone and so will block anything that Zarta may be wearing or have active (she's 11th level, if I remember correctly).

Vyk Tyr, scanning W, does detect magic.

[The imp now goes, if it wants to.)

Everyone is up!

Assuming the imp doesn't react, on his turn

Vyk chanted a spell, moved forward and attacked the space he believed the imp to be.

I'm guessing the imp is at F5. Going to cast True Strike, move in and then attack with my silver light mace.

Silver Light Mace with True Strike: 1d20 + 3 - 2 + 20 ⇒ (4) + 3 - 2 + 20 = 25

Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Vyk Tyr swings and connects with only air and drifting downy fluff and, by virtue of his prescient spell, he knows the imp wasn't there at all.

This could actually resolve itself quickly, thanks to Lady Adelaide's strategy, which I didn't fully appreciate the simplicity of. I was thinking of something more complicated and less reliable.

So, fast forwarding a little bit...

On her third round of scanning:

Lady Adelaide, scanning almost the whole room, no longer detects evil, but a nod from Zander indicates that he does still detect magic.

Everyone but Lady Adelaide and Zander are up!

Grabbing one of the screen curtains from off the bed he circles around to the west side of the bed.

"Come out Mr. Imp, I promise not to dip you in chocolate."

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24

"Kawrock! Don't make promises you won't keep!"

Feeling a bit useless, Tuich listens intently for the imp.

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 5

"Yep, it's definitely noisy in here."